NEW DELHI: After drawing a blank with no
representation in the Narendra Modi cabinet, it was the same story for Kerala
when no one from the state found a place in the new team of BJP president Amit
Shah.

Kerala had a representation in the Bharatiya Janata
Party’s organisational structure when former state president PK Krishna Das was
a secretary in the outgoing team. He too was on Saturday left out by Shah. Shah’s
new team comprises 52 members.

Asked why no one from Kerala was included in the BJP’s
national team, the party’s state president V Muraleedharan said, “I am sorry I
will not be the one to give an answer. This is decided by the national
president and I am only the state president. The national team is selected by
the central party leadership.”

Kerala is the only state where the BJP is yet to open
its account, either in the state assembly or to the two houses of parliament. Shah
is scheduled to visit Kerala later this month, where he will meet the state
leaders.

While former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa
has been named one of the 11 vice-presidents of the party along with Bandaru
Dattatrey and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, in a shocking move BJP MP from Sultanpur,
Varun Gandhi, has been dropped as a general secretary by the party.

A week after his formal appointment as party
President, Shah announced his new team of party office-bearers that includes 11
Vice Presidents, eight General Secretaries and 14 Secretaries. The new team also
includes 10 party Spokespersons, five of them are new.

Shah has retained General Secretaries JP Nadda, Rajiv
Pratap Rudy, Murlidhar Rao and Ramlal, who will continue to take care of the
organisation affairs.

The four new General Secretaries are Ram Madhav, the
RSS face who was sent to the party recently, outgoing BJP Mahila Morcha chief
Saroj Pandey, Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan Bhupendra Yadav and Ram Shankar
Katheriya. Former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been retained as Vice
President.

The other Vice Presidents are Bandaru Dattatreya and
Satyapal Malik, both Lok Sabha members, Purushottam Rupala and Prabhat Jha,
former state unit presidents and Raghuvar Das, a former deputy chief minister
of Jharkhand.

The team has a mix of party workers from across the
country but has major representation from poll-bound states of Maharashtra,
Haryana and Jharkhand. The team also includes five OBCs, six women and has
representation from SCs and STs as well. 80 per cent of Shah’s team are below
the age of 60.

Siddharth Nath Singh, who was in charge of West Bengal
where the party registered some success in the Lok Sabha polls, has been
retained as Secretaries. Former union minister Pramod Mahajan’s daughter Poonam
Mahajan has also been made a Secretary. Other party Secretaries are Shyam Jaju,
Anil Jain, H Raja, Ramesh Deka, Sudha Yadav, Ram Shekar Netam, Arun Singh, RP
Singh, Jyoti Dhruve, Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Kumar.